Virgin Galactic Plans to Become the World's First Commercial Spaceline

Multiple Choice

Virgin Galactic plans to become the world's first commercial spaceline by offering space flights to tourists before the end of the decade. Virgin has been taking reservations for its space flights since 2005 and has currently received deposits from around 600 potential passengers. However, before the company can take paying passengers, it must satisfy the Civil Aviation Authorities that the flights are safe. To that end, the company must make at least 30 crewed flights into space successfully. These crewed flights also enable the company to fine tune the flight experience. The first of these crewed flights occurred in 2010 and since then, the company has made 16 of the required 30 test flights. Virgin Galactic is in which stage of the new product development process?

A) test marketing
B) business analysis
C) product development
D) concept testing
E) concept development